3 steps forward, 1 step back

The first of the Classical Scottish Tour's tournaments was played over the weekend and most enjoyable it was too. With the gym work and the continued training after the Scottish Open, focusing on tactics and tactical vision (with one glaring error unfortunately in this event) and some endgame work so was feeling fit and hoping to put the training to the test. As it was the unfortunate recent anniversary of the passing of the late, great Mike Basman I'd decided to play only his openings this weekend, but compromised only to playing them with White after thinking about it! I played here last year when there was a Premier U2200 section and I'd played in the Major, this year there was no Premier and the Major was U2000. There were lots of players in the 1500-1700 bracket, including Juniors, so competition was tough. However as there are school age internationals on just now the top Juniors were not around to make life even harder! The soundtrack to the journey was the eponymous first album from Kasabian and some early Status Quo, awesome. Unfortunately Kasabian are one of those bands who's early promise got lost somewhere along the way, yes I'm looking at you too Arctic Monkeys.

With my usual Friday night bye I approached my Saturday morning game with something close to a feeling of confidence and certainly anticipation of playing some interesting chess and hopefully decent results. My reasoning and evaluation seemed to be sound in the first game leading to a decent advantage before I blew it in a winning position. The curse of trying to be too clever rather than just clever enough! Now in my earlier days this would have driven me over the edge quite frankly but I realised that I'd played some really good chess until then, bonus, and I had a game in the afternoon so I need to keep it together. Lunch was spent chatting with one of the guys I'd played last year and a fellow Castlehill club member, mostly commiserating with each other on our results! The reward for not letting it get to me was a pretty decent game in the afternoon too, leading to a win this time, with many double checked calculations for the final combination!

Sunday morning meant another 1.b4 though a different variation this time, but interesting nonetheless. Chris caused some problems and yet again I managed to let a decent position slip a little before introducing complications that let to a R+P end game, with an extra pawn for me. Apart from one slip I was incredibly pleased with how the ending was played, all on increment and pretty accurately, leading to another win. Of course we were the last game to finish and it took another 10-15 mins for the adrenalin to wear off over lunch! I was on Board 4 in the final round not with a chance of a prize but at least scoring 3.5/5 would have been a good outcome considering my start. However my opponent was keen to play an Exchange French which quickly fizzled out to a level position which I didn't see the point in trying to grind out, so 3/5 and joint 5th place.

For me this was a good introduction to the season, though I'm going to take a bit of a break from the intensity I've been training at recently to recharge a bit and get ready for the full season ahead. The rating may have taken a little hit but I'm good with that, a lesson learned this early in the season can only help. Thanks to the Arbiters John and Andy for running the event so efficiently, the hotel staff for keeping me supplied with coffee and congratulations to Walter for winning the tournament despite being up till 2am on Sunday morning playing poker!

Please see the games below: